How to get X Windows to stop blanking out

#1 07-17-2008, 09:24 AM

I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some idle time.
I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s noblank", but this seems to
have no effect towards my goal. I want to have the original screen just
stay on there indefinitely. I don't want it to switch to a screensaver,
either.

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#2 07-17-2008, 09:33 AM

phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some idle time.
> I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s noblank", but this seems to
> have no effect towards my goal. I want to have the original screen just
> stay on there indefinitely. I don't want it to switch to a screensaver,
> either.

man xset
xset -dpms
xset s off

--
Niklaus

#3 07-18-2008, 02:01 AM

On 17 Jul 2008 13:33:29 GMT Niklaus Kuehnis wrote:
| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some idle time.
|> I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s noblank", but this seems to
|> have no effect towards my goal. I want to have the original screen just
|> stay on there indefinitely. I don't want it to switch to a screensaver,
|> either.
|
| man xset
| xset -dpms
| xset s off

And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, googlegroups.com is blocked. Due to ignorance |
| by the abuse department, bellsouth.net is blocked. If you post to |
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#4 07-18-2008, 06:38 AM

On 18 Jul 2008 06:01:55 GMT, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> On 17 Jul 2008 13:33:29 GMT Niklaus Kuehnis
> wrote:
>| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
>|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some idle time.
>|> I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s noblank", but this seems to
>|> have no effect towards my goal. I want to have the original screen just
>|> stay on there indefinitely. I don't want it to switch to a screensaver,
>|> either.
>|
>| man xset
>| xset -dpms
>| xset s off
>
> And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?

Is KDE or GNOME responsible for the "blanking"?

#5 07-18-2008, 09:36 AM

#6 07-18-2008, 10:51 AM

In article , wrote:
> On 18 Jul 2008 10:38:34 GMT Bob Tennent wrote:
> | On 18 Jul 2008 06:01:55 GMT, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> | > On 17 Jul 2008 13:33:29 GMT Niklaus Kuehnis
> | > wrote:
> | >| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> | >|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some
> | >|> idle time. I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s noblank",
> | >|> but this seems to have no effect towards my goal. I want to have the
> | >|> original screen just stay on there indefinitely. I don't want it to
> | >|> switch to a screensaver, either.
> | >|
> | >| man xset
> | >| xset -dpms
> | >| xset s off
> | >
> | > And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?
> |
> | Is KDE or GNOME responsible for the "blanking"?
>
> I doubt it. It happens without them as a desktop environment. I'm using fvwm.
> But I could try KDE for a while.

After it happens, check /var/log/{syslog,messages,Xorg.0.log} to see what
happened.

--
-eben QebWenE01R@vTerYizUonI.nOetP royalty.mine.nu:81
If you need someone to blame
Throw a rock in the air
You'll hit someone guilty -- U2, _Zooropa_, "Dirty Day"

#7 07-18-2008, 11:08 AM

phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> On 18 Jul 2008 10:38:34 GMT Bob Tennent wrote:
> | On 18 Jul 2008 06:01:55 GMT, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> | > On 17 Jul 2008 13:33:29 GMT Niklaus Kuehnis
> | > wrote:
> | >| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
> | >
> | > And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?
> |
> | Is KDE or GNOME responsible for the "blanking"?

> I doubt it. It happens without them as a desktop environment. I'm using fvwm.
> But I could try KDE for a while.

Is any screensaver running?
Do you have acpid running? If so, does it still happen after you kill
it?

HTH,
Niklaus

#8 07-19-2008, 01:18 PM

On 18 Jul 2008 in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.x, in article
, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:

>|>| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:

>|>|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some
>|>|> idle time. I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s
>|>|> noblank", but this seems to have no effect towards my goal. I want
>|>|> to have the original screen just stay on there indefinitely. I
>|>|> don't want it to switch to a screensaver, either.

>|> And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?

>| Is KDE or GNOME responsible for the "blanking"?

>I doubt it. It happens without them as a desktop environment. I'm
>using fvwm. But I could try KDE for a while.

How are you starting fvwm? Are you booting into some windoze run-level,
or are you logging in via text mode, and then running 'startx' or 'runx'?

Each desktop has their own whizzy way of running a screen-saver, but few
of them do so _uncommanded_ or by default. Figure out how to get to a
command line, and run the command 'ps afuwx' and look to see where
the window manager is being started. Then look at that application,
or script, and see what options you are passing to the window manager.
In my case, the last line of the 'startx' script reads

xinit $clientargs -- $serverargs -nolisten tcp

and it's setting those two variables by reading the contents of

userclientrc=$HOME/.xinitrc
userserverrc=$HOME/.xserverrc

If you are booting into a GUI mode directly, the display manager (gdm,
kdm, wdm, or xdm would be likely names) have similar lines in their
setup files. See the man page for the appropriate application.

Old guy

#9 07-21-2008, 10:09 AM

#10 07-21-2008, 10:13 AM

On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:18:14 -0500 Moe Trin wrote:
| On 18 Jul 2008 in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.x, in article
| , phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
|
|>|>| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
|
|>|>|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some
|>|>|> idle time. I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s
|>|>|> noblank", but this seems to have no effect towards my goal. I want
|>|>|> to have the original screen just stay on there indefinitely. I
|>|>|> don't want it to switch to a screensaver, either.
|
|>|> And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?
|
|>| Is KDE or GNOME responsible for the "blanking"?
|
|>I doubt it. It happens without them as a desktop environment. I'm
|>using fvwm. But I could try KDE for a while.
|
| How are you starting fvwm? Are you booting into some windoze run-level,
| or are you logging in via text mode, and then running 'startx' or 'runx'?

The system starst in text mode. I run a command to start X. X is configured
to start xdm. I login on the xdm box. Then xdm starts a user login script
that launches fvwm (and other stuff, then execs xlogo so it does not return
to xdm unless I specifically kill xlogo). This is not a KDE/Gnome environment.

| Each desktop has their own whizzy way of running a screen-saver, but few
| of them do so _uncommanded_ or by default. Figure out how to get to a
| command line, and run the command 'ps afuwx' and look to see where
| the window manager is being started. Then look at that application,
| or script, and see what options you are passing to the window manager.
| In my case, the last line of the 'startx' script reads
|
| xinit $clientargs -- $serverargs -nolisten tcp
|
| and it's setting those two variables by reading the contents of
|
| userclientrc=$HOME/.xinitrc
| userserverrc=$HOME/.xserverrc
|
| If you are booting into a GUI mode directly, the display manager (gdm,
| kdm, wdm, or xdm would be likely names) have similar lines in their
| setup files. See the man page for the appropriate application.

See above. This is all set up quite different than KDE/Gnome stuff.

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, googlegroups.com is blocked. Due to ignorance |
| by the abuse department, bellsouth.net is blocked. If you post to |
| Usenet from these places, find another Usenet provider ASAP. |
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (email for humans: first name in lower case at ipal.net) |

#11 07-21-2008, 11:16 AM

On 2008-07-21, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net

wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:18:14 -0500 Moe Trin wrote:
>| On 18 Jul 2008 in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.x, in article
>| , phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
>|
>|>|>| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
>|
>|>|>|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some
>|>|>|> idle time. I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s
>|>|>|> noblank", but this seems to have no effect towards my goal. I want
>|>|>|> to have the original screen just stay on there indefinitely. I
>|>|>|> don't want it to switch to a screensaver, either.
>|
>|>|> And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?
>|
>|>| Is KDE or GNOME responsible for the "blanking"?
>|
>|>I doubt it. It happens without them as a desktop environment. I'm
>|>using fvwm. But I could try KDE for a while.
>|
>| How are you starting fvwm? Are you booting into some windoze run-level,
>| or are you logging in via text mode, and then running 'startx' or 'runx'?
>
> The system starst in text mode. I run a command to start X. X is configured
> to start xdm. I login on the xdm box. Then xdm starts a user login script
> that launches fvwm (and other stuff, then execs xlogo so it does not return
> to xdm unless I specifically kill xlogo). This is not a KDE/Gnome environment.
>
>
>| Each desktop has their own whizzy way of running a screen-saver, but few
>| of them do so _uncommanded_ or by default. Figure out how to get to a
>| command line, and run the command 'ps afuwx' and look to see where
>| the window manager is being started. Then look at that application,
>| or script, and see what options you are passing to the window manager.
>| In my case, the last line of the 'startx' script reads
>|
>| xinit $clientargs -- $serverargs -nolisten tcp
>|
>| and it's setting those two variables by reading the contents of
>|
>| userclientrc=$HOME/.xinitrc
>| userserverrc=$HOME/.xserverrc
>|
>| If you are booting into a GUI mode directly, the display manager (gdm,
>| kdm, wdm, or xdm would be likely names) have similar lines in their
>| setup files. See the man page for the appropriate application.
>
> See above. This is all set up quite different than KDE/Gnome stuff.
>

I'm running suse 11.0 w/kde4.1 beta & have the screensaver on BUT the
"screensaver" never activates (had set the saver to display the torus)
thingy. The monitor still "blanks"; & my monitor led power light shows
yellow instead of green for "on". The yellow is displayed when the
monitor is not getting a signal.

Is this, then, a hardware triggered energy/power/screen saver applied
by something?

#12 07-21-2008, 01:25 PM

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From: phil-news-nospam@ipal.net
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.x
Subject: Re: How to get X Windows to stop blanking out
Date: 21 Jul 2008 14:13:40 GMT
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Sender: Phil Howard
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On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:18:14 -0500 Moe Trin wrote:
| On 18 Jul 2008 in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.x, in article
| , phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
|
|>|>| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
|
|>|>|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some
|>|>|> idle time. I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s
|>|>|> noblank", but this seems to have no effect towards my goal. I want
|>|>|> to have the original screen just stay on there indefinitely. I
|>|>|> don't want it to switch to a screensaver, either.
|
|>|> And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?

How about "xset s off"?

Henny Wilbrink

#13 07-21-2008, 01:50 PM

On 21 Jul 2008 14:13:40 GMT, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:

> The system starst in text mode. I run a command to start X. X is
> configured to start xdm. I login on the xdm box. Then xdm starts a
> user login script that launches fvwm (and other stuff, then execs
> xlogo so it does not return to xdm unless I specifically kill xlogo).
> This is not a KDE/Gnome environment.

Is it a laptop? Try running gnome-power-preferences and changing the
setting for "Put display to sleep when inactive for ...".

#14 07-21-2008, 06:20 PM

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:16:12 -0500 nobody wrote:

| I'm running suse 11.0 w/kde4.1 beta & have the screensaver on BUT the
| "screensaver" never activates (had set the saver to display the torus)
| thingy. The monitor still "blanks"; & my monitor led power light shows
| yellow instead of green for "on". The yellow is displayed when the
| monitor is not getting a signal.
|
| Is this, then, a hardware triggered energy/power/screen saver applied
| by something?

Some number of minutes after mine blanks out, my monitor does the yellow light
thing. It doesn't get sync anymore. So I presume something turned it off.
The monitor has shutdown most of its circuitry, especially the backlight. So
it is saving energy.

But there are times when I want to have it stay on, such as when I have the
weather radar display full screen during stormy weather.

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, googlegroups.com is blocked. Due to ignorance |
| by the abuse department, bellsouth.net is blocked. If you post to |
| Usenet from these places, find another Usenet provider ASAP. |
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (email for humans: first name in lower case at ipal.net) |

#15 07-21-2008, 06:24 PM

On 21 Jul 2008 17:25:50 GMT Henny Wilbrink wrote:
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| From: phil-news-nospam@ipal.net
| Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.x
| Subject: Re: How to get X Windows to stop blanking out
| Date: 21 Jul 2008 14:13:40 GMT
| Organization: NewsGuy - Unlimited Usenet $19.95
| Lines: 53
| Sender: Phil Howard
| Message-ID:
| References: <487f4a29$0$16175$5402220f@news.sunrise.ch>
| NNTP-Posting-Host: p94d1bfbfff000000de9b0c0bcdddf36a8e7b0ca6894268db. newsdawg.com
| User-Agent: tin/1.5.16-20030125 ("Bubbles") (UNIX) (Linux/2.4.21 (i686))
| Xref: news.tiscali.nl comp.os.linux.x:1477
|
| On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:18:14 -0500 Moe Trin wrote:
| | On 18 Jul 2008 in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.x, in article
| | , phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
| |
| |>|>| phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
| |
| |>|>|> I want to have X Windows stop blanking out the screen after some
| |>|>|> idle time. I've tried things like "xset s 0 0" and "xset s
| |>|>|> noblank", but this seems to have no effect towards my goal. I want
| |>|>|> to have the original screen just stay on there indefinitely. I
| |>|>|> don't want it to switch to a screensaver, either.
| |
| |>|> And it still has no effect. Any other ideas to try?
|
| How about "xset s off"?

I've tried all of these, singly, and all together:

xset -dpms
xset s 0 0
xset s noblank
xset s off

I sure hope it isn't a case of some magic subset and in a specific order that
is required to do this. There should be a setting somewhere that controls
how long with no input before blanking or running the screen saver. Maybe if
that value is set to 0 it would disable.

I'm also finding that on text console, this command that should prevent the
blanking there, sometimes does not (e.g. sometimes it blanks out anyway):

setterm -blank 0

I also tried this inside xterm to see if xterm would "know what to do". No
such luck.

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, googlegroups.com is blocked. Due to ignorance |
| by the abuse department, bellsouth.net is blocked. If you post to |
| Usenet from these places, find another Usenet provider ASAP. |
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (email for humans: first name in lower case at ipal.net) |

#16 07-21-2008, 06:43 PM

On 21 Jul 2008 17:50:06 GMT Bob Tennent wrote:
| On 21 Jul 2008 14:13:40 GMT, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:
|
| > The system starst in text mode. I run a command to start X. X is
| > configured to start xdm. I login on the xdm box. Then xdm starts a
| > user login script that launches fvwm (and other stuff, then execs
| > xlogo so it does not return to xdm unless I specifically kill xlogo).
| > This is not a KDE/Gnome environment.
|
| Is it a laptop? Try running gnome-power-preferences and changing the
| setting for "Put display to sleep when inactive for ...".

No. It is a desktop. The video card is Matrox G450 AGP.

================================================== ===========================
pci bus 0x0001 cardnum 0x00 function 0x00: vendor 0x102b device 0x0525
Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400/G450
================================================== ===========================
X Window System Version 1.3.0
Release Date: 19 April 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 1.3
Build Operating System: Slackware 12.0 Slackware Linux Project
Current Operating System: Linux faraday.ipal.net 2.6.25.10 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Jul 6 00:57:32 CDT 2008 i686
Build Date: 09 May 2007
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
================================================== ===========================

Here are a bunch of logs: http://phil.ipal.org/usenet/colx/2008-07-21/

Note that I am running 3 instances of X at the same time. Maybe that is
causing a problem?

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, googlegroups.com is blocked. Due to ignorance |
| by the abuse department, bellsouth.net is blocked. If you post to |
| Usenet from these places, find another Usenet provider ASAP. |
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (email for humans: first name in lower case at ipal.net) |

#17 07-21-2008, 10:50 PM

On 2008-07-21, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net

wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:16:12 -0500 nobody wrote:
>
>| I'm running suse 11.0 w/kde4.1 beta & have the screensaver on BUT the
>| "screensaver" never activates (had set the saver to display the torus)
>| thingy. The monitor still "blanks"; & my monitor led power light shows
>| yellow instead of green for "on". The yellow is displayed when the
>| monitor is not getting a signal.
>|
>| Is this, then, a hardware triggered energy/power/screen saver applied
>| by something?
>
> Some number of minutes after mine blanks out, my monitor does the yellow light
> thing. It doesn't get sync anymore. So I presume something turned it off.
> The monitor has shutdown most of its circuitry, especially the backlight. So
> it is saving energy.
>
> But there are times when I want to have it stay on, such as when I have the
> weather radar display full screen during stormy weather.
>

You didn't state what linux version or kde version.

With suse 11.0 & 4.1 rc1, I looked at the config desktop when selection the
icon on the taskbar that represented gecko(?); then on the config desktop
I selected hardware, display & a tab shows power control which then has
a button/bar for selecting kpowersave.

The kpowersave settings has performance, powersave, presentation & acoustic
selectable as a menu listing. Here is what I find confusing as only the
acoustic item doesn't have selectable timeout configurations. In powersave
there is standby @ 2 min, suspend @ 3 min & power off @ 5 min; BUT the
performance item has relative settings at 10, 20 30 minutes!

Also a default someplace say screen saver is not enabled & with the pointer
over a configurable item say that global dpms will be overridden by
kpowersave.......

It is getting more & more complicated & hopefully some doc is forthcoming.

good luck to you on trial & error to get what you want...... I just got
more white hairs.....

#18 07-23-2008, 08:25 AM

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:50:23 -0500 nobody wrote:
| On 2008-07-21, phil-news-nospam@ipal.net